Overpaid local council difficulties

MPS’ greed rightly caused the greatest political scandal of recent years. But the focus on Parliamentary avarice tended to obscure equally spectacular moneygrabbing by top public-sector managers.

PUBLISHED: PUBLISHED: 00:00, Mon, Aug 16, 2010

Among swathes of officialdom, pay has soared. Some of the worst excesses can be found in local government. At

least 100 town hall chief executives have received packages worth in excess of £200,000, while 221 are paid more than the Prime Minister’s £142,000 a year.

The concept of public service has been replaced by the creed of self-service. There is no justification for these bloated salaries. Overpaid municipal chiefs like to pretend they are running major businesses but in reality they are in charge of local monopolies whose income is largely derived from taxes and grants. It is time self-important bureaucrats joined the real world.